Michael de Brito – ENG
Biography
Michael DeBrito’s paintings document evocative group gatherings, characters in solitude, unconventional portraits and ominous still lifes. His paintings display an acute sensitivity to human interaction in conventional settings. The characters contribute to a sense of conflicting moods and dissonance or provoke the viewer by forcing eye contact. There is a voyeuristic element to his works which are rarely staged and capture everyday life that are at once nostalgic, foreboding, and deeply complex open-ended scenes. His works mark an authoritative departure from traditional figurative art while preserving a recognizable influence from historical epochs.
Michael De Brito received his degree from Parsons School of Design and did postgraduate work at New York Academy of Art. Since 2004, he has been awarded Best of Show from the Audubon Artist Annual Exhibition as well as the Allied Artists of America 92nd Annual Exhibition. A Pollack-Krasner Grant recipient, De Brito has had two solo exhibitions with the Eleanor Ettinger Gallery in New York and a two-man show at the Galeria Graça Brandao Lisbon, Portugal. His work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London and at the Presidential Museum in Lisbon.
Exhibitions (selection)
2016
Afro Brasil Museum
Portugal Portugueses – Group Show
São Paulo, Brazil
Galeria Graça Brandão
Affectionate Constellations – 10 years of the Gallery in Lisbon – Group Show
Lisbon, Portugal
2015
Lucky 7
Affero Gallery
Newark, New Jersey
2013
The Ex-Photo Show
Praxedis Guerrero
New York, New York
2012
University of Maine Museum of Art
The Moment
Bangor, Maine
Arbermarle Gallery
Group show
London, England
ARCOmadrid
Madrid, Spain
2011
Galeria Graça Brandão
Estratégia ou o Dom da Ubiquidade
Lisbon, Portugal
Eleanor Ettinger Gallery
One-man Exhibition
New York, New York
The Arte Institute
Larger than Life
New York, New York
2010
The Kitchen/Whitney ISP
Beauty for the Ashes
Undercurrents: Experimental
ecosystems in Recent Art
Curated by Pablo Helguera
New York, New York
Eleanor Ettinger Gallery
Group show
New York, New York
2009
Museu da Electricidade
Lá Fora
Lisbon, Portugal
2008
Museu da Presidência da República
Lá Fora
Viana do Castelo, Portugal
Eleanor Ettinger Gallery
One-man Exhibition
New York, New York
2007
Eleanor Ettinger Gallery
Group Show
New York, New York
2006
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
BP Award
Edinburgh, Scotland
National Portrait Gallery
BP Award
London, England
